Since my last post I've spent some time exploring the anger stage. The other night, while slicing some vegetables, I felt so angry I stabbed the cutting board. It was a cheap knife and a plastic cutting board, so the impact was minimal but it felt very dramatic and satisfying.
Borrowed from the cinematic masterpiece, 40 Year Old Virgin "the bullshit of all bullshits” is a common expression in
our home. Jason and I use it to express outrage at
extreme injustice. For example, when you get your car back from a week at
the dealership and the check engine light immediately comes back on. Or when you’re three
feet from the finish line, and someone hits you with a blue shell, and Baby Peach
goes tearing past for the win.
I have decided that this breast cancer situation is the
ultimate bullshit of all bullshits.
Not my case in particular, but breast cancer in general.
The odds were against my family from the start. Approximately
1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer.It turns out
that my mom, sister, both my aunts and I, are all women. However, it’s not just
about my family. This issue affects us all. Every one of you is either yourself
a woman or has, at some point, met one.
This epidemic forces too many of us to face terrible options. No woman should have to choose between her life and her
nipples. Take my case: I knew I was BRCA+, so my doctor recommended a
preemptive double mastectomy. When we found out I had cancer he recommended...a double mastectomy. That's right, our best option for preventing is the same thing as the treatment. What exactly were we preempting?
To make it clearer to the menfolk, I will phrase it as a
multiple choice question
Would you rather...
A) have your breasts removed
have at least some of your lymph nodes removed
have at least some of your lymph nodes removed
lose your nipples (in most cases)
never be able to breast feed
lose all feeling in your breasts
have permanent scars
be intentionally poisoned
lose your hair
have your skin turn grey
live with weakened bones
have hot flashes, just part of going through early menopause
forget everything, sometimes half way through a sentence
breakout like a teenager who uses Crisco as a facial mask
experience pain...so much pain
have everyone look at you with the sympathetic pity smile
experience soul crushing exhaustion
not have to worry about calories but everything tastes horrible
spend the rest of your life hearing stories from people about the women they know who died of breast cancer
be marked up like a treasure map for radiation
face a painful series of reconstructive surgeries, or worse, not even have that choice
be intentionally poisoned
lose your hair
have your skin turn grey
live with weakened bones
have hot flashes, just part of going through early menopause
forget everything, sometimes half way through a sentence
breakout like a teenager who uses Crisco as a facial mask
experience pain...so much pain
have everyone look at you with the sympathetic pity smile
experience soul crushing exhaustion
not have to worry about calories but everything tastes horrible
spend the rest of your life hearing stories from people about the women they know who died of breast cancer
be marked up like a treasure map for radiation
face a painful series of reconstructive surgeries, or worse, not even have that choice
OR
B) DIE?
These choices are total bullshit. The Breast Cancer Industry
needs to get its head in the game.
Some charities and businesses are making a killing off breast cancer. Literally. Women
are dying. Please be responsible consumers. Just because it's a certain color doesn't mean the money goes somewhere good. Check how much goes where. Or even better, stop buying products that put a pink ribbon on the package but are full of known carcinogens.
Breast cancer gets more attention than other type of cancer and we still have so far to go. Women have been walking like crazy and buying pink everything for years and I’m still having a double mastectomy on Thursday. Fun fact, that's the same procedure George Washington's mother in law had when she had breast cancer.
Breast cancer gets more attention than other type of cancer and we still have so far to go. Women have been walking like crazy and buying pink everything for years and I’m still having a double mastectomy on Thursday. Fun fact, that's the same procedure George Washington's mother in law had when she had breast cancer.
What about the medical research community and pharmaceutical
industry? Not to be the person who brings up viagra, but you can’t have sex with your
wife if she died of breast cancer. Well you can,
but that’s a whole different blog.
I know that there is potential for ineptitude and
misappropriation in any charitable organization. The breast cancer industry is not unique. But this is the thing I have. And it’s
the thing my sister has and my mom and my aunts. And I’m angry.
We need more research. We need more direct services. We need to help the people who have and save others from having it down the line. We don't need more education. We don't need more awareness. We need answers, we need help.
We need more research. We need more direct services. We need to help the people who have and save others from having it down the line. We don't need more education. We don't need more awareness. We need answers, we need help.
So enough with the cute t-shirts and the pink bullshit. What
can we do to make this stop? To have better options?
Let's make sure that my niece isn’t writing a blog like this in 30 years.
Let's make sure that my niece isn’t writing a blog like this in 30 years.
Next time… surgical update. I will make sure that someone posts an announcement when I
am out of surgery. Thanks, as
always, for the love and support.
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